VANCOUVER. Jim Whitehurst took the stage at the LinuxCon conference today to provide a view of where he sees Linux going. Whitehurst stressed that while the technology is important it's the collaborative user-driven innovation that will make the most impact in the future.

Whitehurst told the LinuxCon audience that the general view of Linux coming from analyst groups is that Linux has done a solid job and is a viable alternative to tradional stacks. He noted that to him, that doesn't tell the whole story.

When it comes to new workloads, Whitehurst said that Linux dominates and will drive platform choices for years to come.

"If Linux were just the best operating system out there it would be interesting, but not fascinating," Whitehurst said.